Ski Binding to Prevent ACL Injury

[AmyPJ]

When I fractured my tibial plateau, initial manual tests in the clinic on-mountain were ACL, because I'm hypermobile, and my ligaments are lax and like overstretched rubber bands. So, my knees do stuff that "normal" knees don't.

X-rays showed the TPF. 2 years later, I found out I DID tear the LCL at the same time.

 

[eok]

Howell has written quite a bit about current conventional binding designs and their limitations. Basically, the designs are meant to mediate the risk of breaking bones - not protect ligaments. As Phil mentioned, changes in ski design (wider, more shaped) has made ligament injury a much higher risk than before - when we skied on longer, narrower straight skis. As Howell pointed out in some writings, there are studies that show a marked increase in ski related ligament injuries - while broken bones trended the opposite. Wish I could post links to Howell's articles, but much of them were on 'Epic...

Besides our brain, one of the most important pieces of safety gear is our ski bindings. The foundation of alpine ski binding design remains mostly based on very old ski designs and skiing styles. Skiing has changed a lot since the 70s. Bindings have only changed superficially.

Never meant to say that ligament injuries were the most numerous skiing injuries.

 

[oldschoolskier]

I’ve read most of Rick Howell’s posts and believe in his ideas of what causes a good portion of the ACL injuries. My closest experience to ACL injury came when switching from straights to shaped about 2011/12.

The error was catching the inside rear edge causing the dreaded Phantom Foot. Basically the pivot point become the front toe and the heel became the lateral release point, specifically release to inside as force was applied outwards and joint locked because I was sitting back. I got extremely lucky. On straights (the way I reacted) the catch would not have happened. Unfortunately blessing and curse of modern shaped skis. My only saving grace was I had been reading about this extensively just prior to my near call. My saving action was complete relaxation (and nearly running into the trees) until the edge released before action to get things under control.

Currently (as far as I know) only one binding does this, the Kneebinding, however my biggest concern with it is that the inventor is no longer with the company and the true understand (RH is ahead of his time) has gone with him (I’m not getting into the legal aspects as that not my business or understanding).

It’s a serious shame that because of legal issues all of the information shared by RH was removed. This was the Binding University course if you could get past the BS in the threads.

 

[James]

I would bet experienced orthopedist have a much higher inital accuracy than that, and general practitioners much lower. Manual evaluation may be dressed up as a science, but it is really an art.

I had an acl undiagnosed by a gp and an ortho. It wasn't till three years later when I had meniscus butchery, aka arthroscopic surgery, that they confirmed my acl had been blown.

The second acl I blew happened within a split second. The ski tip fell in a hole, blew the acl, and launched me into the air and the woods. Calls to ski patrol from the lift above must have been dire because the patroller thought he was coming to pick up a vegetable.

 

[Monique]

I had an acl undiagnosed by a gp and an ortho. It wasn't till three years later when I had meniscus butchery, aka arthroscopic surgery, that they confirmed my acl had been blown.

Wow. Did you feel that there was "something wrong" that whole time? I've heard that some people are much more affected by the loss of the ACL than others are.

 

[James]

Wow. Did you feel that there was "something wrong" that whole time? I've heard that some people are much more affected by the loss of the ACL than others are.

Yes, it was wobbly. Though I did do like nearly 2 weeks wilderness back packing in Wyoming with a brace. But anything like tennis or basketball with sudden stops was out of the question. What did I know, I just thought this was the way it was going to be. The two docs said I did the mcl partial tear so I rehabbed for that. This was like '93, mri's were very expensive and they were sure I didn't need one. The pull on the tibia test is ridiculous.